These descendants of English Strong Ale are a winter tradition and the field of seasonal Christmas beers offered by B.C. craft brewers is growing fast with several new barleywines coming to market for the first time this year.

Meyer is introducing Old Barrel Dweller this month, a bourbon barrel aged version of Old Cellar Dweller, a barleywine that rocks an impressive 11.8 per cent alcohol and complexity that would leave a wine writer searching for adjectives.

Boozy warmth demands to be backed up with big malt and hop flavours, said Meyer. The wood brings notes of vanilla and the higher alcohol content opens the door for the brewer to introduce a whole range of wine-like flavours, fruits and spices.

“We are getting a lot of character from the barrels and a tropical fruity hop nose in the Old Barrel Dweller,” said Meyer. “Both of them are hop and malt bombs.”

Barleywines are typically brewed without pudding spices, fruits and specialty grains that are characteristic of winter ales. The grain is cooked longer with the water to concentrate the flavours and sugars and brewers usually use both ale yeast and wine yeast, which is able to withstand higher alcohol in the fermentation.

“We just use the normal base malt but we get a lot of specialty-malt complexity and colour from a longer boil,” said Meyer. “Despite the high hopping rate, the malt is just colossal.”

“With those strong ale roots from the UK, everything about barleywines is strong,” he said.

English style barleywines like those from Driftwood or Central City Brewing’s prize-winning Thor’s Hammer favour earthy hops and balance achieved through aging.

American barleywines are fortified with a resinous hop that pushes the bitterness of the beer into the stratosphere, which is where you’ll find Granville Island’s barleywine fortified by northwest-style Falconers Flight and Chinook hops.

“The higher alcohol content gives [barleywines] a practically indefinite shelf life and helps it to build complexity with aging,” Meyer said. “It’s probably best to share a bottle of barleywine than put one away yourself, the high alcohol and the narcotic effect of the hops cam really put you out.”

Distinct from barleywines, winter ales usually come in around eight to nine per cent alcohol — lower than their seasonal sibling, but well above the five per cent of a typical ale. Winter ales are also more likely to contain spices, fruit and other adjuncts that mimic that familiar flavours of Christmas.

Low-hopping opens the door to a more wine-like finish, like Gulf Islands’ Fireside Winter Ale or Crannog’s cherry-infused Old Puddin’ Head.

“They change over time, so once you’ve got in a vessel and store it you have a totally different drink in about a year,” said MacIsaac, who runs Sorrento’s all-organic farm-based Crannog Ales.

Notes of vanilla, dried fruit and spices are often infused into winter ales, which gain a characteristic dark amber to reddish black hue depending on the combination of specialty and roasted malts that are used.

Making a boozier brew also requires the use of alcohol-tolerant yeast — sometimes several in combination — all of which bring subtle flavour notes to the finished product.

MacIsaac’s Old Puddin’ Head Winter Ale is brewed with a combination of distiller’s yeast and ale yeast, followed by a champagne-style yeast to finish the fermentation in a high-alcohol environment.

“It’s going to be really complex,” he said.

He adds mace and coriander to add a layer of distinctive spice and herb flavour to the profile and, this year, replaced bitter orange rind with local cherries.

“It’s a celebration of what grew well this year and we have access to the very best,” he said.

As for the possibility of inebriation, MacIsaac is prepared to take the risk. He suggests drinking from a medieval-style leather tankard so it won’t smash on the fireplace if you get a bit loaded.

And by all means have more than one.

“If you get bored of drinking it cool — about eight degrees — warm it up on the stove and have mulled ale, it’s fabulous.” he said.

Though Coal Harbour’s Smoke & Mirrors Imperial Smoked Ale is not typical of the winter beer category, it is dark, it is high in alcohol and it is a departure from the norm.

If fruity esters and plum pudding spices aren’t what you are looking for in a beer, brewmaster Kevin Emms’ aromatic blend of Scottish peat-smoked ale and German beechwood-smoked rauchbier is a winner, literally. S&M blew away nearly three dozen beers in the specialty beer category at the BC Beer Awards last October and it has been re-released for the winter.

“I wanted to make something roasty and stay away from the bacony flavours you get from rauchbier,” said Emm. “I never think that smoke in beer works very well, so I wanted to make one that I actually like.”

Emms ensured that the smoke would not burn the palate by brewing for a lingering sweetness on the finish.

“The bold flavours, high alcohol and the big serving size make this a great beer to share,” he said.

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